1985 Penpex

1985 Penang Philatelic Exhibition

In 1985, there were 3 major stamp exhibition in Malaysia: Aseanpex in March, Penpex in July and Perak Philatelic and Numismatic Exhibition in December. What a year....

The picture above shows Penang Philatelic Exhibition ("Penpex") exhibition cover. The exhibition was organised by Penang Philatelic Society from 27 July - 4 Auguest 1985. From the cover, I would guess that the exhibition was held in Komtar, Penang. I would appreciate if anyone could confirm this.

Penang Philatelic Society has been very active and participated in most major exhibition like the 1994 Aseanpex and other local exhibition. If you look at their society's logo in the cover, it show a "diamond- shape chop with 147". This is the chop used in Penang in strait settlement time, where "147" represent the Penang local postal services.

The cover also have two very special and seldom seen cancellation: "POSTED AT PANPEX '85" and "SEE YOU AT BICENTENARY STAMP EXHIBITION 1986". I have not collected any 1986 bicentenary stamp exhibition cover and interested in buying one if anybody is letting go.

"Aseanpex exhibition cover posted at penpex"

"Penpex Slogan"

I also have this cover in my collection which shows a Penpex Slogan. Interestingly, it is actually a Aseanpex cover.

1995 Proton

1995 Proton Booklet on FDC

As I mention in my previous post, 1995 marked a crazy year for Pos Malaysia as they have issued 3 booklets with special pictorial cancellation but without any official first day covers. After the 1st two issue (Marine Life and Turtle), Malaysia philatelists started to realised the problem and thus got ready for the 3rd booklet issue for the year - Proton by creating their own private cachet. This issue got a lot of attention as the booklet stamps have 10 design and used real photograph (rather than drawing) as the stamp design.

Many version of the cachets are noted as quite a lot of stamp dealer have design their own cover for mass selling to the public. So far, I have collected 4 kind of covers, which are shown as below:

"Kuala Lumpur Type A - Front"

"Kuala Lumpur Type A - Back"

In my opinion, this is the nicest version. The front cover illustrates the Proton Satria and the details of the issues is printed at the back. The designer of this cover showed much details in his design. Although not sure about the quantity issued for this cover, it is still quite common and you still could obtain it from certain dealers.

"Kuala Lumpur Type B"

Type B design was a bit "rough". The printing seem to be using a ribbon type printer. However, nevertheless, it still illustrate a nice proton saga at the front of the cover.

"Ipoh Type C"

This cachet was created by a Ipoh stamp dealer (I believe you would have guess who). According to the dealer, only around 2,000 pieces of this were printed and made into FDC.

"Melaka Type C"

This is the Melaka version created by Mr. Tan, a stamp dealer from Melaka. As you can see, it is a simple version on blank envelope and design using the booklet skin. Mr Tan still have quite a number of stocks for this issue. If you wish to buy this version, you could try to search out Mr Tan ebay listing with the ebay id "winston6099".

1984 Penang-China Exhibition

1984 Penang-China Exhibition

"Penang China Stamp Exhibition - Front"

"Penang China Stamp Exhibition - Back"

This is an interesting aerogramme featuring the Penang-China Stamp Exhibition. The exhibition was held from 26 May 1984 to 10 June 1984. This was a joint stamp exhibition organised by Pos Malaysia and China Postal Services. This was a small exhibition and I have not much information about it. If anybody have any info about this exhibition, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment regarding the event.

The aerogramme was affixed with a China year of rats stamp and was cancelled with a special pictorial cancellation. You will normally get foreign stamp affixed on an exhibition cover if:

1. the country have send representative to participate in your exhibition

2. special stamp/cancellation is issued for the events

Of all my collection, this is the earliest "joint exhibition" cover (with other countries) which I discovered so far. Although in the later date, Malaysia would organised more major stamp exhibition with lots of participation from other countries, this may be the first cover to ever evidence that.

China had issued a very nice cancellation to commemorate this event. Please note that the word "Pameran" (exhibition) is wrongly spelled as "Pamiran". However, according to my dad, bahasa baku is not strongly implemented at that time and this is a correct spelling.

The cancellation olso featured the hibiscus flower, which is the national flower of Malaysia.

1984 was the year of rat and thus the stamp is used. This was also the year my younger sister was born. How I wish it was the year of monkey and the China year of monkey stamp was affixed. If so, this cover would worth a fortune.

"Burial Pole (Kelirieng)"

At the back of the aerogrammes, there is this picture regarding the Burial Pole (or also known as "Keliring"). This is erected for a Punan aristocrats.

Punan Bah or Punan is an ethnic group found in Sarawak, Malaysia. They are distinct, unrelated to the Penan and also the other so called Punan found in Kalimantan the Indonesian part of Borneo. Their name stems from two rivers along the banks of which they have been living time immemorial. They do have other names - Mikuang Bungulan or Mikuang and Aveang Buan. But these terms are only used ritually these days.

Punan is a stratified society of 'laja' (aristocrats), 'panyen' (commoners), and 'lipen' (slaves). This is a fact determine their historical traditions that have been preserved. Just like most of the history of European Middle Ages is linked to and mainly concerned the various ruling monarchs, so are the historical and mythical traditions of Punan closely connected to their rulings aristocrats.

The Punan have a unique burial custom. In the early days they did not bury their aristocrats or lajar. Instead they built a pole known as kelirieng of 50-meter height to lay down their beloved leaders. In Sarawak it is estimated that there are fewer than 30 kelirieng left standing. The Punan still practice secondary burial ceremony, whereby the dead body is kept at their longhouse for at least 3–7 days. This is partly to give more time for far away relatives to give their last respect to the deceased.

There are so much tribe or ethnic group in Sabah and Sarawak which we may have little knowledge about. I hope I could visit one of this pole one day.

1970 Malaysia Exhibition - Error Cover

1970 Malaysian Exhibition - Error Cover

I have recently bought this interesting cover. It shows an error which commanly seen in color photo printing - color shift. A clearer picture of the color shift for the "stamp" as printed on the cover could be seen below:

As illustrated in my previous post, this cover was to commemorate the 1st Malaysian Stamp Exhibition. It was printed by Philatelic Society of Malaysia ("PSM"). I guess the printer engaged by PSM has not check the product properly and thus this cover was obtained by the public.

The printing process for this cover is very much similar to the printing of the stamp, where a technique call "offset lithography" is used.

For stamp printing, full sheets of paper are transferred through the printing press by means of grippers, which ensure that the positioning of the colours is exactly right. The colours are printed consecutively, usually the darkest first and the lightest last, although this order may change if the design demands it. The color normally use includes the three primary color (red, blue and yellow) and black. Sometime while or special color (such as gold or silver) may be used. The overlaping of the primary color could create all type of other colors, for instance blue and red become purple, red and yellow become orange etc. As you can see on the picture above, the overlaping of "red" in the cover above has not been accurate, thus created this "error".

Because the modern offset press works at very high speed, the inks have to dray almost instantly if smudges are to be avoided. Several different drying methods are used. The conventional one is to spray a fine powder on to the printed sheet, which not only speeds the drying process but forms a barrier between the sheets when they are stacked. In addition, catalysts may be added to the inks. In UV printing, an interesting new technique, the inks contain additives which react to UV lights in the press, drying them almost instantly.

Obviously the density of the inks and the strength of the colours have to be very carefully controlled. Also, if the colours are going to print exactly in line with one another, the paper has to be positioned under the cylinders within pinpoint accuracy. Final adjustments are made at a computer console which controls every operation of the offset machine. The skilled operator will regularly pull a sheet from the press and examine it closely, noting any defects, any changes in colour balance or density or any necessary adjustments to the registration.

"Pic showing the printing/engraving process of stamps"

Lithography works on the principle that water and oil repel one another. The offset machine has three main cylinders. The first carries the zinc plate with the image to be printed. The second is a rubber blanket which transfers the image and the third (the impression cylinder) carries the paper. Oil-based ink is transferred from ink ducts via a series of inking rollers to the printing plate. It adheres only to the areas which are to be printed because the rest of the plate is kept damp. As the rollers rotate, the ink is transferred to the rubber blanket which, in turn, transfers it to the paper travelling over the impression cylinder.

The printing process, although noisy, is remarkably quick, clean and efficient. Only two people are needed to control the giant offset machine, along with another to load the paper and ensure the free flow of the inks. Now anyone familiar with basic printing techniques will recognise all the above. It is fairly run-of-the-mill printing technology, albeit at the highest levels of skill and on an impressively large scale.

1985 Aseanpex

1985 Aseanpex (Asean Philatelic Exhibition)

Malaysia is proud to hold the first Aseanpex exhibition in March 1985 (Singapore held the second Aseanpex in March 1986). The exhibition was held from 9 March 1985 to 24 March 1985 (16 days!!) in the National Museum, Kuala Lumpur. It was really cool to have such event lasting for half a month. You don't really get such opportunities nowadays. The latest Aseanpex that I have attended in 2005, KL Sentral, was so small that only Malaysia and Singapore booths available.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999. This is why you can only see 6 flags on this souvenir cover, because as at 1985, ASEAN members only comprises of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei. As of now, ASEAN have 10 members and their latest philatelic breakthrough would be the joint issue of 40th years of Asean Building in 2007.

The ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are: (1) to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and (2) to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

The ASEAN Vision 2020, adopted by the ASEAN Leaders on the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN, agreed on a shared vision of ASEAN as a concert of Southeast Asian nations, outward looking, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bonded together in partnership in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies.

Please note that this is a preprinted cover and the "stamp" as appear on the cover is not a exact stamp. This would normally categorised as "postal stationery" under philatelic collection. In year 1985, POS Malaysia already had pictorial cancellation. However, no special cancellation were created for ASEANPEX 1985. Thus, all the 16 days exhibition cancellations were the dull circle as shown above.